Oct. 9 - More than 250 law enforcement agents "dismantled'' three local chapters of the Sons of Silence motorcycle gang Thursday night and Friday morning, arresting 39 members and seizing dozens of guns.

Beginning just after dark Thursday, SWAT teams made up of federal and local agents spread out to 25 locations in Colorado Springs, Commerce City and Fort Collins. Officials are still seeking three gang members.

Two undercover federal agents infiltrated the motorcycle gang and spent two years documenting illegal drug and gun transactions that culminated with the raids.

"We have disrupted, dismantled and destroyed a major outlaw motorcycle gang,'' said U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland. "It was a very complicated and very elaborate takedown. I can't overemphasize the courage of the agents involved and of the two undercover ATF agents who infiltrated the gang.''

Those arrested included the gang's national president, Leonard L. Reed, 52, of Ramah, east of Colorado Springs.

Several gang members had threatened to kill anyone who tried to arrest them, but no incidents were reported and no one was injured, said ATF Special Agent Chris Sadowski of the Phoenix office, who orchestrated the raids.

ATF agent Larry Bettendorf said the element of surprise was a large part of the raids, conducted by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Colorado Springs Police Department.

"We began roughly at 7 o'clock Thursday night. At 8:30 p.m., we entered the Commerce City clubhouse, and around 6:30 the next morning, we went into the Colorado Springs clubhouse,'' Bettendorf said. "It was a very large operation but we didn't use any special tactics, nothing different than what we normally use on special-response exercises.'' He refused to give any other details of the raids.

Nearly every member arrested has prior felony convictions, Strickland said, and is prohibited from possessing firearms. According to an ATF affidavit, gang member Mark G. Wagar, 48, of Colorado Springs told an undercover agent that he owned the AK-47 that had been used by gang member Steven W. Kressin, 43, of Colorado Springs to kill "Satan,'' the national vice president of the Outlaws gang, in Indianapolis in 1980.

The arrests culminated a twoyear investigation into the dealings of one of the nation's most notorious gangs, which trades in weapons, explosives and methamphetamine.

ATF officials said the gang is one of the "Big Five'' motorcycle gangs in the country, along with the Bandidos, Hells Angels, Outlaws and Pagans.

Sons of Silence was formed in Niwot in 1967. There are 14 chapters in seven states with 200 duespaying members. There are 100 members in Colorado. Gang members call themselves "1 percenters,'' or the "baddest of the bad,'' according to court documents.

The two undercover agents spent two years living with the gang, gradually gaining trust and respect. After being accepted into the gang on probationary status, they proved themselves well enough to become "patch members'' - full members allowed to wear the gang's patches.

Sadowski said the two agents sacrificed their family lives and risked their own lives as well. The agents had to adhere strictly to the Sons of Silence bylaws, but he wouldn't elaborate on the initiation rites they had to participate in.

During the two years with the gang, the agents purchased 78 guns, including 39 handguns, 10 rifles, five shotguns, three pipe bombs, three hand grenades and 9 pounds of methamphetamine.

The "mystique'' of the Sons of Silence "has been unmasked. They are not Teflon, and they are not untouchable,'' said Rich Marianos, ATF resident-in-charge in Colorado Springs, where the two-year probe originated.

Inside the 960-square-foot clubhouse-home owned by a gang member in Colorado Springs, there was a makeshift shrine to Adolf Hitler in what once was a closet. Below a portrait of the Nazi leader, several helmets worn by German soldiers were arranged neatly on a shelf. Numerous books, including a mintcondition copy of "Mein Kampf,'' Hitler's manifesto, were also part of the shrine.

Several long swords and knives were mounted on the outside of the shrine. A sticker that read: "Don't piss me off, I am running out of places to hide the bodies'' was posted above a neatly made bed.

The back door to the residence is a heavy, 1.5-inch steel door. The property is protected by security cameras mounted on the outside of the home and the clubhouse - a garage that was converted into a bar with a pool table and video machines. A monitor in the clubhouse allowed club members to view who was approaching from the outside.

"They're the best neighbors you'll ever have,'' said John Hodgden, who lives next door. Hodgden said his neighbors never bothered him. Even when they had large parties and motorcycles lined the streets, the group was always wellbehaved.

Club members also trimmed bushes and cut the grass for a 94-year-old woman who lived in the neighborhood until last March, Hodgden said.

The gang has a long history of violence, drug dealing and feuds with rival gangs in Colorado.

In 1981, a former Sons of Silence member was convicted of killing a Lakewood drug dealer. Two years later, a battle between the Sons of Silence and the Diablos Lobos gangs ended with one man dead in an Aurora bar and a murder charge against the Sons of Silence member who shot him. A year later, the group's founder was accused of kidnapping a doctor to extort $280,000 from him.

More recently, former Sons of Silence leader Leonard Ray Shipley was sentenced to 24 years in prison on drug charges after police found nearly a pound of methamphetamine and a grenade simulator at his house.

Some gang members have also been victims of gun violence. In 1993, Sons of Silence member Paul Klein was shot to death at the Colorado Springs bar he managed. Eugene Baylis, the Peyton farmer who sprayed the bar with an AK47, killing two people and wounding five, was acquitted of murder charges after claiming he fired in self-defense.